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Monday, July 15, 2013

Tisha B'Av 2013 - Posters call for killing of ultra-Orthodox soldiers

Posters advocating holy war and the murder of ultra-Orthodox
IDF soldiers popped up in a religious neighborhood of Jerusalem on Monday,
coming close on the heels of a string of assaults on religious draftees.

The pashkvils, printed public notices pasted to walls, in
the ultra-Orthodox neighborhood of Ramat Shlomo, called upon “all those who
fear the word of God” to rise up against their oppressors — which it identifies
as “the evil government and its emissaries the Hardakim.”

Hardakim is a Hebrew slang neologism for ultra-Orthodox Jews
(Haredim) who join the army. It is a contraction of Haredim kalei da’at, or
“weak-minded Haredim,” which also echoes the Hebrew term for bacteria,
haydakim.

It was not clear who was responsible for printing or posting
the notices, but commentators on Orthodox Internet forums Behadrei Haredim and
Rotter.net postulated that the over-the-top formulations on the poster
suggested that it was either an attempt at parody or to besmirch the
ultra-Orthodox community.

Evoking language from the story of Pinehas — a zealot priest
whom the Bible says smote an Israelite chief and a gentile woman who were
engaged in an idolatrous sexual ritual — the bills equate those who enlist in
the IDF to those who lay with the daughters of Midian, and calls on the
righteous “to do hara-kiri to each and every [ultra-Orthodox soldier].”

The bottom of the posters features a phone number for
donations, which belongs to a religious school situated at the West Bank shrine
of the Tomb of Rachel. A representative of the hotline told The Times of Israel
that she was wholly unaware of the posters in question.

Three other phone numbers on the pashkvils direct “those
ready to give their souls to sally forth in holy war” to an automated messaging
system for an organization called Mivtzar (Hebrew for castle), which offers aid
for ultra-Orthodox on draft-related matters. It instructs callers to dial 5 “to
report a teen who was drafted or is about to be drafted,” and to dial 6 “to
report discretely about all important information.”

Attempts to contact Mivtzar for comment were unsuccessful.

Hiddush, an Israeli NGO advocating freedom of religion and
equality, lodged a complaint with the police, and CEO Rabbi Uri Regev denounced
the posters as part of a string of grave criminal acts.

“In light of the wave of violence against ultra-Orthodox
soldiers there’s a need for immediate and decisive action in order to prevent
injuries and murders,” Regev said in a statement. “Whoever incites to kill
soldiers is a terrorist in every respect and that’s how we should treat him.”

The IDF had no comment specific to the incident, but
reiterated in a statement that “We condemn any action that prevents Israeli
citizens from executing their civil duty to contribute to the defense of the
State of Israel. We are cooperating with the relevant authorities in order to
curtail this phenomenon as soon as possible.”

An Israel Police spokesperson said the incident was under
investigation.

Tensions over IDF enlistment have been simmering in the
Haredi community since a High Court ruling last year that declared a
long-standing exemption from conscription for ultra-Orthodox men to be
unconstitutional.

Extreme ultra-Orthodox elements perceive attempts to draft
members of their community as an affront to traditional Jewish mores, and a
mortal threat to their conservative way of life. The community has organized
rallies and protest marches, its leaders have delivered sermons assailing the
military, and Haredi men who do enlist have been subject to taunts, threats and
even violence on their return home: Last week, two ultra-Orthodox soldiers were
accosted by Haredi assailants in Jerusalem. A third was attacked on Sunday.

Rabbi Gershon Edelstein, a prominent religious leader in
Bnei Brak, on Monday denounced the attacks, saying that the perpetrators
“caused great damage to the world of Torah. They are not just thugs, but also
fools.”

“It is incumbent upon the people of the [ultra-Orthodox
community] to condemn the attack on the soldier,” Edelstein said, and called on
community leaders in the Jerusalem, where the attacks took place, to step
forward and denounce them.